This is a call for volunteers for this year's SF Pride festival on June 24 & 25.Theme: A Celebration of Diversity

As you may know, every year, the Pagan Alliance has its biggest fundraiser working as a Donations Partner with Pride. We work to collect donations from festival-goers, and then we get a cut of the money raised. We collect $1 from everyone that enters the gate at Pride. The more donations collected, the larger the grant.

You’ll receive a Pagan Alliance t-shirt or tank top and meet others in the Community while having fun at the SF Pride Celebration.

You can volunteer as many shifts as you wish. You'll check-in at the Donations Booth on Civic Center Plaza adjacent to Larkin at Fulton.

We have some special volunteer positions open for those with mobility issues too. I'm looking for 2 people each day that can help us expedite volunteer entry to the festival. This is a seated position close to donations command. I also have a need for two people at the end of each day to help with our close down procedures. These are also seated positions.

We're a fun group! Come join us.

To volunteer, please Text or Call Arlynne at (510) 872-1188 or at or send a message on Facebook to Arlynne Camire. Please let her know your legal name and what shift(s) you would like to volunteer. You’ll be emailed a volunteer waiver form so we have a record of your volunteer hours.

At the January 2017 meeting, the Pagan Alliance Board of Directors voted not to host the 14th Pagan Festival thus year. The reason is threefold:

Safety-Rhetoric and policies of the current president, his staff and administration continue to incite verbal and physical violence toward non-whites, LGBTQs, and practioners of non-Christian religions. The desceration of sacred lands, synogues, mosques, temples and grave sites is deeply disturbing to all of us in the Pagan Alliance. Our community event is a potential target. since its free to all and Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park is a non-gated public venue, so maintaining a safe environment, free from a violent act aimed at all attendees, cannot be guaranteed.

Funding-In order to keep the Pagan festival "free to all", the Pagan Alliance depends on grants, fundraisers and donations. In 2016, we received very few donations, we didn't host fundraisers and our funding was mostly from a donations partner grant from the SF LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration, however, it is insufficient funding to host a festival this year. The SF LGBT Pride grant was particularly low this year due to a low turnout due to multiple reasons including proximity to the horrific attack in Orlando and the difficulty that many of our volunteers had with the high police presence at this year's event.

Volunteers-The Pagan Alliance has a core of dedicated volunteers who make the day of the festival run smoothly. However, the planning of this community celebration has always been shouldered by a small committee. Since, planning and hosting events are dependent on volunteer participation, a lack of volunteers means that event planning and execution are difficult and continue to be shouldered by very few people who no longer can make this sacrifice for the community event. In addition, a decreasing number of volunteers has resulted in the inability to host fundraisers and a smaller donations partner grant.

The Pagan Alliance Board of Directors believes that community empowerment is key in these times.

Polices and newly adopted laws are dismantling human and civil rights and target gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, size, physically ability and religion. And with the latest illegal detention of legal US residents, our board believes that it is necessary to empower our community through presentation of a speaker/workshop series. This series will cover topics including religious freedoms, civil rights, privacy protection, social and environmental justice, environmental protection and activism.

This series will begin in the Spring. We invite suggestions of topics and invite volunteers to assist with hosting future events.